Brian Cox reads IF I MUST DIE, the last poem by Refaat Alareer, killed by an Israeli airstrike - YouTube
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMpk2vynJiQ
Brian Cox reads IF I MUST DIE, the last poem by Refaat Alareer, killed by an Israeli airstrike
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’I Had to Be the Voice of Women’ : The First Female Hijacker Shares Her Story
▻https://www.vice.com/en/article/9k99k7/leila-khaled-first-female-hijacker-profileUne brève biographie de la miltante palestinienne Leila Khaled
« Vice » classe cette interview avec la militante palestinienne Leila Khaled sous « identité ». Par cette ruse la rédaction fait disparaître sa cause, son combat contre l’injustice et les responsables de l’injustice derrière cet écran de fumée composé de tolérance identitaire et fausses présomptions.. Pourtant son témoignage explique ses mobiles et fait comprendre pourquo il y a des situations où la lutte non-violente n’a plus de raison d’être et les causes politiques ne peuvent se faire entendre que par le combat armé.
Nous pouvons nous estimer heureux que nous vvions en Europe centrale toujours sous des conditions relativement paisibles malgré l’oppression et l’exploitation des classes populaires de plus en plus brutale.
4.8.2016.by Leila Ettachfini - On August 29, 1969, 25-year-old Leila Khaled made her way into the cockpit of TWA Flight 870 and commandeered the plane on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. After that, she became known equally as an icon and a terrorist.
On April 9, 1948, a young Palestinian girl from Haifa celebrated her fourth birthday, and between 100 and more than 250 Palestinian villagers were killed at the hands of the Irgun and Lehi, two paramilitary Zionist organizations, in what came to be known as the Deir Yassin massacre. The massacre proved to the girl’s family that they could no longer keep their eight children safe in their home country—they would have to flee. In the days following the bloodshed, the little girl, Leila Khaled, became a refugee. Twenty-one years later she would become the world’s first female hijacker.
Deir Yassin was the first large-scale massacre of Palestinians in the history of the Palestine/Israel conflict, and it was only the beginning of similar tragedies. It preceded the beginning of the 1948 Palestinian exodus—also known as the Nakba, literally “the disaster” in Arabic—by one month. Though Khaled’s parents hoped fleeing the country would increase their children’s chances at a safe and normal life—and by many historical accounts, they were safer fleeing than staying home—this did not mean that their new lives as refugees were free of struggle and danger. When Khaled’s family left Palestine, they headed to the Dahiya, a suburb south of Beirut that has been home to thousands of Palestinian refugees since 1948. The location of major refugee camps like Sabra and Shatila, the Dahiya is a place all too familiar with instability and deadly attacks, committed by both Israeli forces as well as right-wing Christian Lebanese groups like the Phalangists. Overall, it is a poverty-stricken area populated mostly by refugees and Lebanon’s own lower class. For four-year-old Khaled, it was her new home.
Now 72, Leila Khaled agreed to Skype me from her home in Jordan in late June. She sat in her living room wearing thin-framed eyeglasses and a hot pink shirt with traditional white embroidery—quite the opposite image to the woman in the iconic photo of Khaled in her youth, wearing a military shirt and keffiyeh, the typically black-and-white scarf that has come to symbolize Middle Eastern pride, and holding an AK-47. On her hand she wears a ring made from the pin of the first grenade she ever used in training.
Khaled described her childhood as, simply, “miserable,” living in a state of uncertainty about both her country and her family. When they left their country initially, her father stayed behind to fight for Palestine; he would join his wife and their children in the Dahiya six months after they made the initial journey. Growing up, Khaled recalls asking her parents two questions constantly: “Why are we living like this?” and “When are we going back?”
Based on the current state of Palestine, the latter may seem naive, but it was not entirely so at the time. In December of 1948 the UN adopted Resolution 194, which stated that, “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date.” Because Israel never complied, Khaled and many other refugee children continued to ask when they would return home well into adulthood.
As is the case with many refugee families, especially in the Dahiya, the Khaleds faced poverty. “I never had a whole pencil,” Khaled told me, “always half. My mother used to cut it into two so every child could go to school.” Despite this, the Khaleds had it better than most refugee families who did not have the family connections in Lebanon that provided Leila and her family with shelter and food. Still, they, like many others, relied on UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees.
By the late 50s, the atmosphere of the area echoed the “rise of the national spirit,” according to Khaled, and she often participated in the frequent public demonstrations in her community meant to raise awareness for the plight of the Palestinian people. It was then that her involvement within the Palestinian resistance began to evolve from passive to active. Many of her older siblings had joined the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), which declared the liberation of Palestine as one of its main goals. In her early teens, though Khaled was not allowed to fight with the ANM quite yet, she contributed by providing fighters with food and support even in the middle of dangerous battles. At age 16 she was accepted as an official member.
In 1967, at age 23, Khaled joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or the PFLP, despite her mother’s wishes. According to Sarah Irving’s book Leila Khaled: Icon of Palestinian Liberation, Khaled’s mother told her, “Let your brothers go and be fighters.” But Leila Khaled did not want to be on the sidelines of the movement. “Calling for armed struggle—it was my dream,” she told me.
The PFLP is considered a terrorist organization by countries like the US and the EU; its political leanings are usually described as secular and Marxist-Leninist. When the PFLP was formed, Khaled says, it was clear that it wanted both men and women actively involved in the resistance. When she was assigned to partake in a hijacking in 1969, she viewed the assignment as the PFLP upholding that idea.
On August 29, 1969, Khaled and fellow PFLP member Salim Issawi hijacked TWA Flight 840 on its way from Rome to Tel Aviv. Khaled boarded the plane with a hand grenade and pistol. Once in the air, the two revealed their weapons, made their way into the cockpit, and said, “This is the Palestinian movement taking over your airplane,” according to Harry Oakley, the co-pilot. They then instructed the pilots to redirect the plane to Damascus, but not before flying over Palestine. “It was my happiest moment,” she said, “when we flew over Palestine and I saw my city, Haifa—not the hijacking.”
Despite being a young woman about to attempt a mission that would either end her life or change it forever, Khaled was not nervous. “The contrary,” she told me, “I was happy because I was doing something for my people.” As for the purpose of the hijacking, Khaled is just as straightforward there. “It was meant to put the question in front of the whole world: Who are the Palestinians? After 1948, we were dealt with as refugees who needed human aid and that’s it—not recognizing our right of return. Also, to release the prisoners.”
Upon landing, Khaled and Issawi evacuated the Boeing 707, and Issawi proceeded to blow up the nose of the aircraft as it lay empty on the cement. “We had instructions not to harm passengers,” said Khaled. “Very strict instructions not to hurt anyone, and to deal with the pilot and the crew with politeness—not to frighten them even.” Still, Khaled knows that her actions did, of course, frighten the innocent passengers, but to her, their momentary fear was a small a price to pay in order to put the suffering of her people on the world’s stage.
In a post-9/11 world, it’s hard to imagine, but in 1969, hijackings were a relatively new tactic and not considered death sentences to the extent that they are now. Video footage of the passengers aboard TWA flight 840 shows a crowd that is relatively calm—some even express an understanding of Khaled and Issawi’s actions. In video footage of interviews with the passengers after the plane landed, one man reasons, “There was an Israeli assassin on board who was responsible for the deaths of many Arab women and children, and all they wanted to do was bring this assassin to a friendly Arab city and give him a fair trial.” The “assassin” the man is referring to was Yitzhak Rabin; at the time, he was Israel’s ambassador to the United States and was scheduled to be on TWA flight 840 that day, though a last-minute change of plans made it so he was not. Despite the understanding of some, like this passenger, many were understandably upset and shaken.
After six weeks of off-and-on hunger strikes and questioning in Syria, Khaled and Issawi were released. While they were in jail, Syria made negotiations with Israel that resulted in the release of Palestinian prisoners who had been kept in Israeli prisons. This—and the frenzy of attention that labeled Khaled a hero among many Palestinians, as well as put the Palestinian story on the world’s stage—was enough for Khaled to deem the mission a success.
Others, however, including many Palestinians, did not agree. For one, whether Khaled knew it at the time or not, this hijacking would tie the word terrorism to the Palestinian resistance for years to come. Many thought her mission tainted their image in front of the world; rather than refugees in need, Palestinians were now terrorists who didn’t deserve sympathy. In 2006 Palestinian–Swedish filmmaker Lina Makboul made a documentary called Leila Khaled: Hijacker. The film ends when Makboul asks Khaled, “Didn’t you ever think that what you were doing would give the Palestinians a bad reputation?”
Then, the interview cuts out. “By not having her answer in it,” Makboul told me, “I wanted to show that in the end it actually doesn’t matter—because she did it.”
Still, I was glad to have the opportunity to ask Khaled myself. “I told [Makboul], I think I added to my people, not offended the Palestinian struggle,” said Khaled.
It makes sense that Khaled was proud of her mission—for one year later, she would do it again. This time, though, it was with a different face.
After the first hijacking, Leila Khaled quickly became an icon within the Palestinian resistance. Posters of her famous photo were printed out and hung around refugee camps that occupied the West Bank, Gaza, and the diaspora. She was well known—a problem for two reasons. One, she never wanted personal fame; in fact, she found it pretty annoying. “Some would ask me, ’How many hours do you spend in the mirror?’” she said, “as if this was a question of any logic.” She often refused to answer. “We’d be happy to answer all the questions dealing with the cause itself,” she said, “the core issues, why the conflict, who is oppressing who, and so on—these are the main issues that we want to raise in front of the media. Not whether I have a boyfriend or not. That doesn’t mean anything.”
The second issue was that being very recognizable made it difficult to continue her work with the PFLP. In 1970, Khaled was appointed to participate in another hijacking mission, but her new notoriety meant she could no longer fly under the radar like she had before. Still, no measure was too drastic when it came to the question of Palestine: Between the first hijacking and the second, Khaled underwent six total plastic surgeries in Lebanon.
On September 6, 1970, Khaled and a man named Patrick Argüello, a Nicaraguan–American who volunteered with the PFLP, attempted to hijack a plane on its way from Amsterdam to New York City. This time, Khaled’s mission did not run so smoothly. After moving to the cockpit and threatening to blow up the plane, Khaled was tackled in the air by guards and passengers while carrying two hand grenades and a pistol. In an attempt to defend her, Argüello fired at those tackling her, but he was shot and later died of his injuries. Simultaneously, the pilot of El Al flight 219 cleverly dropped the plane into a nosedive; Khaled lost balance, making her more vulnerable to attack, despite the visible weapons she carried.
This operation was a part of a series of PFLP missions known as the Dawson’s Field hijackings. (Dawson’s Field is the deserted airstrip in Jordan where Khaled and Argüello were supposed to force the plane to land.) With Khaled knocked out by the men who tackled her and broke her ribs—and Argüello dead—the plane made an emergency landing in London. In her autobiography, My People Shall Live, Khaled writes, “I should have been the one to be killed because it was my struggle and he was here to support us.”
After being taken to the hospital, Khaled was held and questioned by British authorities while the PFLP held the passengers who were aboard the rest of the hijacked aircrafts hostage at Dawson’s Field and attempted to negotiate with the countries they were from. The majority were released in Amman a few days later, but the PFLP kept 40, arguing that they were members of the Israeli army and thus “prisoners of war.” On September 30, British authorities let Khaled walk free as part of a negotiated deal with the PFLP; several Palestinian prisoners were also freed from European prisons.
Upon her release, Khaled went back to Beirut and back to work, though she was constantly on the move to ensure her safety. In November of 1970, not two months after she left prison, she married the man who first taught her how to hold arms. He was a military commander in the PFLP who had previously been jailed for ten years in Iraq, where he was from, for his involvement in the Communist Party. But as tensions in Jordan were on the rise and Khaled’s husband felt pressure to go fight with his men, their relationship began to disintegrate. When Khaled could no longer ignore Israeli threats and decided to go into hiding, it was clear that their marriage was no longer working; the couple decided to get a divorce.
In 1973 Khaled decided to move to the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut. (Shatila is widely known for the massacre of 1982, where death toll estimates are between 700 to 3,500 people—mass graves and a failure to investigate by the Lebanese government account for the wide range.) Fed up with her widespread, international attention, Khaled wanted to be in a humble place. “To be under light all the time was not comfortable for me,” she said. “For this reason I went and lived in Sabra and Shatila camp—to be with the people and work with the people.”
When Khaled visits Shatila with Lina Makboul in her documentary, she is visibly welcomed as a hero. “I have always dreamt of walking beside you,” a man says to her as she makes her way through the camp on her way to visit an old comrade. Another points to her jokingly, “Do you know Leila Khaled? She is a terrorist!”
Though Khaled is widely known for the hijackings that took place more than 40 years ago, she has been anything but absent from the resistance since then. In the aftermath of her hijackings, Leila Khaled became involved in the General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW) and a member of the Palestinian National Council (PNC). Threats against her safety were a part of her daily life and frequently materialized. On Christmas 1975, she came home to find her sister and her sister’s fiancé shot dead in her apartment. She had been the target.
In 1978 she left Lebanon to study history in the Soviet Union, where she met her second husband, a medical student and fellow PFLP member, Fayez Hilal. But two years after she began her studies, the resistance called—she was back in Lebanon working at the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) office. Khaled and Hilal had two children in the 80s, Badar and Bashar.
It was never easy being a woman in the resistance, let alone a mother—she was expected to speak for the entire female Palestinian population. “I had to be the voice of women, those who nobody sees,” she said. Still, she maintains that the victims in the conflict are the Palestinian people in general—not women or men. “To feel injustice and be conscious of who is oppressing you—you will act as a human being, whether you are a woman or a man,” she said. “Men were fighting; they gave their lives. Women also gave their lives. Men and women went to jail.”
Today, Khaled is an icon of not only the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation, but also of the Palestinian women’s movement. “The revolution changed the image of the Palestinian woman,” she said. “They are also in the revolution on an equal basis—they can do whatever the revolution needs.”
When Khaled is asked about religion, she is firm that her enemy has never been Judaism. After her second hijacking, Khaled was rushed to a hospital in London, where a cop informed her that her doctor was Jewish. Khaled didn’t mind. “I was against Zionists, not Jews,” Khaled later told Sarah Irving. “[The cop] did not understand the difference, and I was in too much pain to explain.”
Unlike most notorious terrorist organizations today, Khaled’s organization, the PFLP, has a secular reputation. It was the last week of Ramadan when I spoke to Khaled, but she told me that she isn’t particularly religious. “I think that whatever you are—you believe in Islam, or Christianity, or in Judaism—this is something personal,” she told me. When I asked if she practices Islam, she said, “I practice the values of humanity. These values are also mentioned in Islam: to be honest, to help the poor.”
Khaled has been called both an Arab-Marxist hijacker and a freedom fighter, regarded as both a terrorist and a hero. When I asked her to define terrorism, she said it was “occupation.” The Leila Khaled on my Skype screen had been through much more than the young woman in the photo with her head loosely wrapped in a keffiyeh, but fundamentally the two are much the same. The terrorist/freedom fighter debate may be relative when it comes to Khaled, but her unwavering devotion and passion for Palestine is indisputable. “I’m from a family who believes in Islam,” she said, “but I’m not a fanatic. I’m a fanatic about Palestine and about my people.”
#Palestine #PFLP #histoire #nakba #marxisme #sionisme #féminisme #moyen_orient
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World VFX Day - Tom Salinksy
▻https://www.mydylarama.org.uk/World-VFX-Day-Tom-SalinksyHappy World VFX Day! There’s nothing more special than special effects. Whether digital or practical, special effects are created by a highly skilled, specialised labour force and have created some of cinema’s most captivating images (that’s why we insist on calling them SPECIAL effects). In support of the effects industry and to celebrate the first World VFX day we spoke with a random collection of people who work in and/or love sfx and asked them to share some of their favourite (...) #Screen_Extra
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Poet and scholar Refaat Alareer has been killed by an Israeli airstrike. ‹ Literary Hub
▻https://lithub.com/poet-and-scholar-refaat-alareer-has-been-killed-by-an-israeli-airstrikeThe Palestinian poet, writer, literature professor, and activist Dr. Refaat Alareer was killed today in a targeted Israeli airstrike that also killed his brother, his sister, and four of her children. He is survived by his wife, Nusayba, and their children.
Dr. Alareer was a beloved professor of literature and creative writing at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he taught since 2007.
He was the co-editor of Gaza Unsilenced (2015) and the editor of Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine (2014). In his contribution to the 2022 collection Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, titled “Gaza Asks: When Shall this Pass?”, Refaat writes:
It shall pass, I keep hoping. It shall pass, I keep saying. Sometimes I mean it. Sometimes I don’t. And as Gaza keeps gasping for life, we struggle for it to pass, we have no choice but to fight back and to tell her stories. For Palestine.
Dr. Alareer was also one of the founders of We Are Not Numbers, a nonprofit organization launched in Gaza after Israel’s 2014 attack and dedicated to creating “a new generation of Palestinian writers and thinkers who can bring together a profound change to the Palestinian cause.”
Through his popular Twitter account, “Refaat in Gaza,” Dr. Alareer vehemently condemned the ongoing atrocities committed against his people by Israeli forces, as well as the successive U.S. administrations that enabled them. (...)
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son dernier poème sur Twitter : ►https://twitter.com/itranslate123/status/1719701312990830934
If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself—
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up
above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale-
X \ شهداء غزّة Gaza martyrs على X: “Important information on Refaat’s assassination: The day before yesterday, Refaat received a phone call from the Israeli intelligence about locating him in the school where he took refuge. They informed him that they were going to kill him. He left the school not wanting to… ▻https://t.co/t9cnFqcHOh”
▻https://twitter.com/Gaza_Shaheed/status/1733107761037078879 -
In memory of Dr. Refaat Alareer
The Electronic Intifada 7 December 2023
▻https://electronicintifada.net/content/memory-dr-refaat-alareer/42466 -
Charlies Ingalls Le Vrai 🤠🐑🐄🐔🐎🤓
@CharliesIngalls | 11:46 PM · 9 déc. 2023
▻https://twitter.com/CharliesIngalls/status/1733619132405256326🚨🇵🇸 "Si je dois mourir, tu dois vivre pour raconter mon histoire", l’écrivain et poète gazaoui Refaat Alareer délibérément assassiné par l’armée israélienne selon l’ONG de défense des droits de l’homme Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
"La frappe aérienne a visé précisement l’appartement du deuxième étage dans lequel il était réfugié et non l’immeuble entier, ce qui indique que c’est l’appartement qui était visé", a déclaré l’organisation.
Sont également morts dans l’attaque israélienne son frère Salah, l’un des enfants de ce dernier, Muhammad, sa sœur Asmaa et trois enfants de cette dernière, Alaa, Yahya et Muhammad.
Refaat écrivait en anglais depuis des années pour alerter sur le sort des Palestiniens. Il y a quelques semaines, il témoignait depuis Gaza, en larmes.
Son dernier poème, écrit pendant cette guerre.
« Si je dois mourir,
tu dois vivre
pour raconter mon histoire,
pour vendre mes affaires,
pour acheter un morceau de tissu
et quelques ficelles,
(fais qu’il soit blanc avec une longue traine)
pour qu’un enfant, quelque part à Gaza,
scrutant le paradis dans les yeux,
en attendant son père parti dans un brasier -
sans dire adieu à personne,
pas même à sa chair,
pas même à lui-même -
voit le cerf-volant, mon cerf-volant que tu as fait,
s’envoler au-dessus de lui
et pense un instant qu’un ange est là
pour ramener l’amour.
Si je dois mourir, que ce soit
pour apporter de l’espoir.
Que ce soit un conte. »▻https://liberation.fr/international/moyen-orient/offensive-israelienne-refaat-alareer-le-poete-mort-pour-gaza-20231208_6PU
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Refaat in Gaza 🇵🇸 sur X :
(1/11/2023)If I must die, let it be a tale. #FreePalestine #Gaza
►https://twitter.com/itranslate123/status/1719701312990830934
Ils l’ont tué aujourd’hui ▻https://twitter.com/ramabdu/status/1732845629490004455?s=48&t=Iwn4bpiKIJHEjLmmCl0aaQ
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Rami Jarrah sur X : “BREAKING: Professor Sufian Tayeh, who headed the largest university in #Gaza, killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp. He was ranked among the top 2% of researchers globally & was appointed UNESCO chair for Physical & Astrophysical sciences in Palestine. ▻https://t.co/lqEvhN3Wp5” / X
▻https://twitter.com/RamiJarrah/status/1730928859837522209BREAKING:
Professor Sufian Tayeh, who headed the largest university in #Gaza, killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Jabalia refugee camp.
He was ranked among the top 2% of researchers globally & was appointed UNESCO chair for Physical & Astrophysical sciences in Palestine.
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Les sionistes viennent d’assassiner deux journalistes d’Al Mayadeen au Liban sud :
لبنان : الميادين تنعى الشهيدين المراسلة فرح عمر والمصور ربيع المعماري نتيجة استهداف إسرائيلي غاِدر جنوبي لبنان | الميادين
▻https://www.almayadeen.net/latestnews/2023/11/21/لبنان--الميادين-تنعى-الشهيدين-المراسلة-فرح-عمر-والمصور-ربيع-
لبنان : الميادين تنعى الشهيدين المراسلة فرح عمر والمصور ربيع المعماري نتيجة استهداف إسرائيلي غاِدر جنوبي لبنان | الميادين
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12:21 GMT
▻https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/11/21/israel-hamas-war-live-medics-patients-remain-trapped-in-gaza-hospitals
Infographic
Journalists killed during the warINTERACTIVE_JOURNALISTS_KILLED_ISRAEL_GAZA_NOV_21
12:25 GMT
Attack proves Israel’s goal is to silence media: Lebanese PM
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has condemned the Israeli attack that has killed two Al Mayadeen TV employees in southern Lebanon and a number of civilians.
“This attack proves once again that there are no limits to Israeli crimes, and that its goal is to silence the media that exposes its crimes and attacks,” broadcaster NBN Lebanon quoted him as saying on X.
“We extend our condolences to the Al Mayadeen family and the families of the two media martyrs, asking God to shower them with His mercy and grant their families patience and solace.”
عبّر رئيس الحكومة نجيب ميقاتي عن ادانته الشديدة للاعـ.ـتداء “الاسرائيلي” الذي استهـ.ـدف الاعلاميين في الجنوب اليوم ما أدى الى استشـ.ـهاد مراسلة “قناة الميادين” فرح عمر والمصور ربيع المعماري وعدد من المدنيين.
وقال: هذا الاعتـ.ـداء يثبت مجددا ان لا حدود للاجـ.ـرام الاسرائيلي،… pic.twitter.com/h7YnARD6et
— nbnlebanon (@nbntweets) November 21, 2023
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Electronic Intifada sur X :
▻https://twitter.com/intifada/status/1726345295515058255WATCH: Israeli children sing, “We will annihilate everyone” in Gaza, against a background of destruction.
Disturbing video was posted, then deleted by Israeli national broadcaster
@kann_news
.We captured it and added English subtitles
▻https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1726333471415541760/pu/vid/avc1/1280x720/XNlMgCJ-Fn239fHP.mp4?tag=12
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L’armée yemenite arraisonne un navire sioniste en mer rouge :
العميد سريع يكشف تفاصيل احتجاز القوات اليمنية سفينة إسرائيلية في البحر الأحمر | الميادين
▻https://www.almayadeen.net/news/politics/العميد-سريع-يكشف-تفاصيل-احتجاز-القوات-اليمنية-سفينة-إسرائيلي
▻https://alpha-ar-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2023/11/19/149aae31-20be-45d3-ab43-f84613a9349d.jpg?v=3&width=600المتحدّث الرسمي باسم القوات المسلحة اليمنية العميد يحيى سريع يؤكد احتجاز القوات اليمنية سفينة إسرائيلية في البحر الأحمر، ويقول إنهم مستمرون في تنفيذ العمليات العسكرية ضد الاحتلال الإسرائيلي حتى يتوقّف العدوان على قطاع غزة.
▻https://alpha-ar-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2023/11/19/149aae31-20be-45d3-ab43-f84613a9349d.jpg
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▻https://fr.sputniknews.africa/20231119/des-houthis-yemenites-affirment-avoir-capture-un-cargo-israelien-
Des combattants houthis ont annoncé ce dimanche 19 novembre s’être emparés du navire cargo Galaxy Leader affrété par Israël en mer Rouge, au large du Yémen.
Des Houthis yéménites ont pris le contrôle du navire Galaxy Leader affrété par Israël, a annoncé à Sputnik un porte-parole du mouvement Ansar Allah.
« Les forces appartenant au groupe ont intercepté le navire commercial Galaxy Leader au large du Yémen, dans la mer Rouge, et ont pu y monter à bord », a fait savoir l’interlocuteur de l’agence.
Selon lui, le navire a été ensuite « emmené dans la province de Hodeidah, à l’ouest du Yémen ». Les 22 membres d’équipage sont en train d’être interrogés.
Auparavant, la chaîne Al Hadath a rapporté que des combattants houthis s’étaient emparés d’un navire cargo israélien dans le golfe d’Aden. Selon ses informations, le bâtiment battant pavillon des Bahamas était parti d’Egypte et se dirigeait vers l’Inde.
Par la suite, Tsahal a confirmé le détournement du navire tout en soulignant que ce dernier n’appartenait pas à Israël et n’avait pas d’Israéliens à son bord.
L’armée israélienne a pourtant estimé qu’il s’agit d’un « incident grave au niveau mondial ». -
“بالتزامن، قالت وسائل إعلام إسرائيلية، إنّ”الحوثيين يواصلون تحدّي إسرائيل ويسيطرون على سفينة إسرائيلية"، مؤكدةً أنّ “السفينة تعود ملكيتها إلى رجل الأعمال الإسرائيلي رامي أونجر، وكانت تحمل سيارات، وشقّت طريقها من ميناء في جنوب تركيا إلى ميناء في غرب الهند”.
Selon la presse sioniste le navire appartient a l’homme d’affaire sioniste Rami Wanger et transportait des voitures et venant des port de Turquie. -
C’est en fait Rami Ungar (tjs le pb des noms étrangers en arabe ;-)
A gauche sur la photo
▻https://www.weizmann.ac.il/WeizmannCompass/sections/weizmann-world/israel-friends-of-the-weizmann-institute-of-science/israeli-friends-event
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▻https://new.thecradle.co/articles/yemeni-naval-forces-seize-israeli-linked-vessel
Hebrew media reported that the ship is owned by a British company owned by Israeli businessman, international shipping mogul, and billionaire Abraham Ungar, who goes by the name ‘Rami.’
A UN ship database identified the ship’s owners as a Tel Aviv-based firm, Ray Shipping Ltd. Ungar is the founder of Ray Shipping and is known as one of the wealthiest men in Israel, reported the Times of Israel.
According to Israeli media, Ungar also has ties to Israeli politicians and is close friends with former Mossad director Yossi Cohen.
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Yémen : les rebelles Houthis se sont emparés d’un navire commercial en mer Rouge, selon Israël
▻https://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/proche-orient/israel-palestine/yemen-les-rebelles-houthis-se-sont-empares-d-un-navire-commercial-en-meCe navire commercial, détourné dimanche vers la côte yéménite n’est pas israélien, selon les forces de défense de l’Etat hébreu. Le Premier ministre dénonce l’implication de l’Iran, ennemi d’Israël.
Article rédigé par franceinfo avec AFP
France Télévisions -
Galaxy Leader is owned by Tel Aviv-based Ray Shipping, one of the largest providers of pure car and truck carriers
▻https://www.liberation.fr/international/moyen-orient/nationalite-incertaine-pour-le-cargo-aux-mains-des-rebelles-pro-hamas-du-
▻https://www.lloydslist.com/LL1147314/Houthis-hijack-Israeli-owned-car-carrier-Galaxy-Leader -
Hijacked Galaxy Leader Owner Encouraged by Reports of Imminent Release of Crew
▻https://gcaptain.com/hijacked-galaxy-leader-owner-encouraged-by-reports-of-imminent-release-of-Galaxy Maritime Ltd, the Isle of Man registered owner of the Galaxy Leader, issued its latest statement on Friday in response to reports from the Philippines that the release of the 17 Filipino seafarers being held is imminent.
The Galaxy Leader, a Bermuda-flagged car carrier chartered by Japanese shipping company NYK, was illegally boarded by armed assailants via helicopter on November 19 as it transited the Red Sea. The ship, which reportedly has ties to an Israeli businessman, has continued to be held in Yemen waters along with its 25 crew.
[…]
“Despite all efforts and those of all the authorities represented by crew members from Bulgaria, Mexico, Romania, Ukraine and the Philippines, our valued seafarers remain in the hands of the Houthis,” Galaxy Maritime said.roulier (transport de véhicules) construit en Pologne (2002)
propriétaire domicilié à l’Île de Man
sous pavillon des Bermudes
affrèté par une société japonaise (probable faux nez d’un entrepreneur israélien)
avec un équipage des Philippines, Bulgarie, Mexique, Roumanie et Ukraine
… le transport maritime en 2024heureusement, pour les navires qui ne sont pas déroutés par le Cap de Bonne Espérance, les marins danois syndiqués ont obtenu double paie dans la zone à risque de la Mer Rouge.
(je serais curieux de connaître le montant global de ce surcoût spécifique…)Danish Unions Secure Hazard Pay for Mariners Navigating the Red Sea
▻https://gcaptain.com/red-sea-attacks-mean-double-wages-for-danish-seafarersThe shipping industry in Denmark, home to some of the world’s largest firms, agreed to double wages for crew sailing through the Red Sea to compensate for the danger posed by the recent attacks.
The hazard pay kicks in for the time spent in two defined high-risk areas in the region, according to a deal presented on Friday by employer group Danish Shipping and the nation’s three largest labor unions for seafarers.
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Israeli Apache helicopters killed own soldiers, civilians on 7 October: Report
▻https://new.thecradle.co/articles/israeli-apache-helicopters-killed-own-soldiers-civilians-on-7-october-
▻http://thecradle-main.oss-eu-central-1.aliyuncs.com/public/articles/7c61170a-7f14-11ee-9789-00163e02c055.webp-
X \ In Context على X: “The footage from an Israeli Apache helicopter on October 7 shows the targeting of what appears to be Israeli civilians from the music festival and their cars. Several attendees of the Supernova music festival in Israel have stepped forward, acknowledging that the Israeli… ▻https://t.co/oERoIhDxWc”
▻https://twitter.com/incontextmedia/status/1722605904993083847
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Pour celles ou ceux qui ont envie de promouvoir les atrocités de la colonie sioniste, voici un guide d’utilisation :
tip report - sf-israel-projects-2009-global-language-dictionary.pdf
▻https://www.transcend.org/tms/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/sf-israel-projects-2009-global-language-dictionary.pdf -
Les premières trois petites filles assassinées par les colons sionistes au sud du Liban. C’est une ligne rouge franchie :
X \ الميادين لبنان على X : « خاص #الميادين| من موقع استهداف السيارة المدنية في منطقة #عيناتا الجنوبية بمسيّرة إسرائيلية، والتي أسفر عنها ارتقاء 3 أطفال #لبنان #الميادين_لبنان ▻https://t.co/BKOngUamek »
▻https://twitter.com/mayadeenlebanon/status/1721196720233611517-
X \ الميادين لبنان على X : « خاص #الميادين| من موقع استهداف السيارة المدنية في منطقة #عيناتا الجنوبية بمسيّرة إسرائيلية، والتي أسفر عنها ارتقاء 3 أطفال #لبنان #الميادين_لبنان
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Guerre entre Israël et le Hamas : quatre membres de la famille d’un journaliste libanais tués dans une frappe israélienne - ladepeche.fr
►https://www.ladepeche.fr/2023/11/05/guerre-entre-israel-et-le-hamas-quatre-membres-de-la-famille-dun-journalisLa frappe mortelle a eu lieu dans le sud du Liban.
Nasrallah avait déclaré que ce serait civil pour civil ;
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Nadim Houry sur X :
Heartbreaking. And extremely worrying as in 2006, I worked for months at hrw documenting a pattern of attacks of Israel on civilian vehicles driving from the South. Read it in “Why they died”.
▻https://twitter.com/nadimhoury/status/1721220391400620098
Apparemment ils veulent la guerre ou ils sont en train de tester Nasrallah
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S’il y a une guerre avec le Liban, la Palestine retombera dans les oubliettes, ce qu’il faut éviter a tout prix.
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Cette morbide attraction pour l’assassinat ciblé d’enfants c’est quand même quelque chose,
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►https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/11/4/israel-hamas-war-live-heavy-israeli-bombing-pounds-northern-gaza
19:35 GMTUpdate on deadly attack on Lebanese civilians
More details are emerging on the attack in southern Lebanon that killed three children and their grandmother.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reports two cars carrying members of the same family – one of them a local journalist – were driving between the towns of Ainata and Aitaroun when they were hit by an Israeli air strike.
One of the cars was hit directly and burst into flames, the report said. One woman and three girls, ages 10, 12 and 14 were killed, and others were wounded.
Shortly after the Israeli strike, Hezbollah said its fighters had fired Grad rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel in response. Local media reported that the rockets landed in the Israeli border towns of Metula and Kiryat Shmona. It wasn’t immediately clear if there were casualties.
The incident raises the likelihood of a dangerous new escalation in the conflict on the Lebanon-Israel border.
19:40 GMT
Attacks in Lebanon ‘based on intelligence’: Israel army
We’ve reported that three children and their grandmother were killed in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon.
Israel’s army spokesperson gave no details, but said it operates based on information and examines every event in Lebanon thoroughly.
Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said: “Regarding Lebanon, we attack on the basis of intelligence information and we will continue to attack. That is our mission. Anyone who threatens us we will attack them.
“And every event of course that occurs in Lebanon we examine it and learn about it to understand the details. That’s what I can say at this point.”
21:20 GMT
Update on 4 civilians killed in Lebanon
Earlier we reported four civilians – including three children and their grandmother – were killed in air attacks in southern Lebanon.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati denounced the attack as an “abhorrent crime committed by the Israeli enemy”, adding that the cars were targeted by drones.
Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said he would bring the matter to the attention of the UN Security Council on Monday.
Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah says all options are on the table for an intensification with Israel if the crisis in Gaza deepens.
More than 70 people have died on the Lebanese side since the start of hostilities. Most of those killed are Hezbollah fighters, though they include civilians and one Reuters journalist.
Israel has said six soldiers and one civilian have died on its side, though Hezbollah claims it has killed or injured 120 Israeli soldiers.
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Liban : sa femme et ses trois petits-enfants tués, la famille d’un journaliste victime d’une frappe israélienne
Par Le Parisien avec AFP
Le 5 novembre 2023 à 18h43
▻https://www.leparisien.fr/international/israel/liban-sa-femme-et-ses-trois-petits-enfants-tues-la-famille-dun-journalistUne femme et ses trois petits-enfants ont perdu la vie dans le sud du Liban. Le reporter a, lui, été blessé selon l’agence officielle libanaise Ani.
Les journalistes de nouveau frappés par la guerre au Proche-Orient. Quatre membres de la famille d’un journaliste libanais, parmi lesquels trois enfants, ont été tués dimanche dans une frappe israélienne, alors qu’ils étaient en voiture sur une route du sud du Liban, selon un média d’État. Les victimes sont la sœur du journaliste Samir Ayoub, correspondant d’une radio locale, et les trois petits-enfants de celle-ci, âgés de 14, 12 et 10 ans, selon l’agence nationale d’information Ani.
Le journaliste, qui était au volant de sa voiture, a été blessé. Ses proches le suivaient dans une seconde voiture. La zone frontalière entre le Liban et Israël est le théâtre d’échanges de tirs fréquents entre l’armée israélienne et le Hezbollah pro-iranien notamment, depuis le début de la guerre entre Israël et le Hamas, déclenchée le 7 octobre par l’attaque sanglante du mouvement islamiste palestinien sur le sol israélien.
Dimanche matin, quatre secouristes avaient été blessés dans un bombardement israélien contre deux ambulances appartenant à une association locale, avaient rapporté cette association et l’Ani. Le 13 octobre, un journaliste de Reuters, Issam Abdallah, avait été tué et six autres, dont deux de l’AFP, avaient été blessés, alors qu’ils couvraient les violences dans le sud du Liban. Les autorités libanaises avaient accusé Israël.
Depuis le 7 octobre, 81 personnes ont péri du côté libanais, selon un décompte de l’AFP, dont 59 combattants du Hezbollah et au moins 11 civils. Six soldats et un civil ont été tués du côté israélien, d’après les autorités.
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Donc l’AFP située au Liban cite le nombre de pertes israéliennes telles que données par les « autorités » (de l’état sioniste)
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Quatre civils, dont trois enfants, tués par une frappe israélienne au Liban-Sud - L’Orient-Le Jour
►https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1356271/quatre-civils-dont-trois-enfants-tues-par-une-frappe-israelienne-au-lLe parti de Dieu n’a pas tardé à réagir dimanche soir. Dans la soirée, un porte-parole arabophone de l’armée israélienne a annoncé qu’un civil israélien avait été tué dans une attaque du Hezbollah près de la frontière. « Le Hezbollah continue de saper la sécurité dans le Nord et cible sans discernement les habitants du Nord, tout en mettant en danger la stabilité du sud du Liban », a déclaré le porte-parole, cité par le média israélien Haaretz. Peu avant 20h, le Hezbollah a confirmé dans un communiqué avoir ciblé la ville israélienne de Kiryat Shmona à 19h20, à l’aide de roquettes de type Grad, « en réponse au crime odieux de l’ennemi sioniste qui a ciblé cet après-midi une voiture civile (…), tuant une femme et ses trois petits-enfants ».
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Frappe au Liban : "Est-ce une façon pour Israël de tester les limites du Hezbollah ?" - YouTube
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvuMd1t_0rgDans cette vidéo Joseph Bahout, comme Chomsky dans une des vidéos que j’ai mises en ligne concernant la colonisation galopante (▻https://seenthis.net/messages/1024888#message1025133 à partir de 6´15’´ à peu près), affirme que les Etats-Unis ont les moyens d’empêcher l’état sioniste de déclencher une guerre régionale, mais Chomsky ajoute que le messianisme religieux de la bande à Netanyahou pourrait amener cette dernière à ne pas obéir et qu’à ce moment là « on serait face à de sérieux problèmes »
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Iraqis warn of western plan to move Gazans to Anbar desert
▻https://new.thecradle.co/articles/iraqis-warn-of-western-plan-to-move-gazans-to-anbar-desert
▻http://thecradle-main.oss-eu-central-1.aliyuncs.com/public/articles/83684626-7a6a-11ee-90f6-00163e02c055.webpSince the unveiling of the Trump era peace plan in 2019, reports have surfaced suggesting that the continued US presence in western Iraq has broader intentions beyond establishing military bases.
It is speculated that the goal is to create an “alternative homeland” for Palestinian refugees in the Anbar desert. This notion might have remained confined to the realm of “conspiracy theories” if it weren’t for suggestions made by Israeli leaders following the 7 October Al-Aqsa Flood resistance operation, and their unprecedented genocidal aggression against the Gaza Strip.
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106 ans :
Balfour declaration unmarked - Balfour Declaration - Wikipedia
▻https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration-
Pourtant en août 1917 :
Mémorandum d’Edwin Montagu sur l’antisémitisme du gouvernement actuel (britannique) – Soumis au cabinet britannique en août 1917
J’ai choisi le titre ci-dessus pour ce mémorandum, non dans un sens hostile, pas du tout pour me quereller avec un point de vue antisémite qui pourrait être tenu par mes collègues, pas avec le désir de nier que l’antisémitisme puisse être éprouvé par des hommes rationnels, même pas en vue de suggérer que le gouvernement est délibérément antisémite ; mais je tiens à exprimer officiellement mon opinion selon laquelle la politique du gouvernement de Sa Majesté est antisémite et, par conséquent, constituera un terrain de ralliement pour les antisémites dans tous les pays du monde.
(…) ▻https://ujfp.org/memorandum-dedwin-montagu-sur-lantisemitisme-du-gouvernement-actuel-britanniqu
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October 7 testimonies reveal Israel’s military ‘shelling’ Israeli citizens with tanks, missiles - The Grayzone
▻https://thegrayzone.com/2023/10/27/israels-military-shelled-burning-tanks-helicoptersA propos des morts israéliennes provoquées par sa propre armée lors des combats contre les commandos de Gaza. Et aussi à propos de la fabrication - ou ce qui ressemble bien à cela - de « preuves » contre les « atrocités des terroristes ». C’est C’est assez long et très détaillé, et c’est en anglais mais Firefox propose désormais la traduction.
Israel’s military received orders to shell Israeli homes and even their own bases as they were overwhelmed by Hamas militants on October 7. How many Israeli citizens said to have been “burned alive” were actually killed by friendly fire?
Several new testimonies by Israeli witnesses to the October 7 Hamas surprise attack on southern Israel adds to growing evidence that the Israeli military killed its own citizens as they fought to neutralize Palestinian gunmen.
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The Grayzone
▻https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_GrayzoneAfin de contester les atrocités en cours au Xinjiang, les médias d’État chinois et les responsables chinois citent de plus en plus les publications de The Grayzone dans leurs communications publiques. Selon un rapport de l’Australian Strategic Policy Institute, les médias contrôlés par l’État chinois et les entités affiliées commencent à relayer et amplifier des articles de The Grayzone en décembre 2019, après que le site Web a publié un article critiquant le chercheur sur les droits humains du Xinjiang Adrian Zenz. Les médias contrôlés par l’État chinois ont relayé The Grayzone au moins 313 fois entre décembre 2019 et février 2021, dont 252 occurrences dans des publications en anglais, selon le rapport33. Ils ont ainsi utilisé la couverture faite par The Grayzone de la situation dans leur propagande pour discréditer les rapports concernant les atteintes aux droits humains dans le Xinjiang34.
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Ben Norton a quitté The Grayzone et accuse Blumenthal d’être passé à l’extrême-droite.
▻https://twitter.com/BenjaminNorton/status/1709734903540281503Why did I leave The Grayzone? Well it’s obviously run by an unstable megalomaniac with no coherent principles.
He took a hard right-wing turn, intentionally appealing to Trump’s “MAGA” followers.
He condemned the left as a “cult”.
Blumenthal and his wife are so close to racist reactionary Tucker Carlson, they invite him to their house for dinner.
They have long abandoned any pretense of being on the left and are opportunist contrarians who believe in nothing other than self-aggrandizement.
Here’s just one of many shameful examples: Before the 2022 US midterm elections, The Grayzone promoted far-right “MAGA” candidates such as the shady Trump-endorsed Republican Joe Kent, a former Green Beret who joined the CIA.
Talk about losing the plot. It’s beyond parody.
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du coup c’est étonnant. ils ont perdu la connexion avec la Russie ? la droite américaine soutien farouchement Israël.
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Secret U.S. War in Lebanon Is Tinder for Escalation of Israel–Gaza Conflict
▻https://theintercept.com/2023/10/24/israel-lebanon-us-military-hezbollahBillions in security aid to Lebanon, along with off-the-books commandos, could embroil the U.S. in a regional conflagration.
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What really happened on 7th October?
►https://new.thecradle.co/articles/what-really-happened-on-7th-october
▻http://thecradle-main.oss-eu-central-1.aliyuncs.com/public/articles/a6d7f948-7282-11ee-a0b6-00163e02c055.webpEvidence is now emerging that up to half the Israelis killed were combatants; that Israeli forces were responsible for some of their own civilian deaths; and that Tel Aviv disseminated false ‘Hamas atrocities’ stories to justify its devastating air assault on Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
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Alqaous a commencé depuis hier une chronique quotidienne des crimes sionistes :
رزنامة الجرائم الإسرائيلية | القوس
▻https://www.alqaous.com/article/682نبدأ اليوم في «القوس» بعرض «رزنامة الجرائم الإسرائيلية» بحق الشعب الفلسطيني المحاصر في قطاع غزّة والضفة الغربية مستندين إلى إحصاءات جمعية «الهلال الأحمر الفلسطيني» ووكالة غوث اللاجئين الفلسطينيين ووزارة الصحة الفلسطينية، وشبكة «قدس» الإخبارية ووكالة «الأنباء والمعلومات الفلسطينية/وفا» ومؤسسة الدراسات الفلسطينية، وعدد من وسائل الإعلام التي تتابع التطورات الميدانية في غزّة والضفّة. كما نشير إلى العدوان الذي يتعرض له جنوب لبنان والجرائم الإسرائيلية بحق أهلنا في القرى الحدودية.
في الآتي ملخص أوّلي لحصيلة 13 يوماً من العدوان. ويمكن الاطلاع على تفاصيل موسّعة للعدوان من خلال موقع «القوس» الإلكتروني www.alqaous.com. (تتطلب مهمّة توثيق العدوان بصورة شاملة ومفصّلة مزيداً من الوقت والتدقيق في المصادر والمواقيت، لكننا نعرض المعلومات التي جمعناها حتى الآن). -
HEART-WRENCHING: Why are Gaza children writing names on bodies amid Israeli carpet-bombing?
▻https://www.geo.tv/latest/515341-heart-wrenching-why-are-gaza-children-writing-names-on-bodies-amid-israelChildren in Gaza have resorted to writing their names on their bodies as a grim means of ensuring proper identification in case they die in an Israeli attack.
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X \ MintPress News على X: “Palestinian children in Gaza writing their names on their arms with the to help doctors identify their corpses in case if they are killed in an Israeli airstrike. ▻https://t.co/NO8uiSCU6u”
▻https://twitter.com/MintPressNews/status/1715404247229964598
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To keep the lights on in Gaza City’s largest hospital, Wissam AbuJarad, an anesthetist, said staff were collecting gas from dwindling stocks in the area to maintain a steady supply to their generators.
“If we run out of fuel, then we will lose all of the patients in the ICU, the babies in the incubators, and the patients who need surgery,” AbuJarad said.
He said that some staff had been reduced to drinking from IV solution bags because Israel had cut off water supplies to the enclave.
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/16/israel-gaza-hamas-border-ceasefire
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The shutoff of clean water is of particularly grave concern. When people no longer have access to clean, treated water, they will drink water from whatever source there is, including seawater. These sources may be contaminated with sewage, chemicals, and other contaminants, which can lead to water-borne illnesses like cholera and dysentery; outbreaks of such diseases would strain the medical system in Gaza. These diseases also require rapid rehydration, and without a source of water, they can quickly become deadly. Clean water is also necessary for providing proper medical care to people—for one thing, you can’t wash your hands without it. Water is a key component in many medical procedures, such as dialysis for kidney patients. When clean water is no longer available, medical practitioners have to spend crucial moments looking for water in a time when time can barely be spared. Meanwhile, the blockade prevents medical supplies from entering Gaza, and Médecins Sans Frontières has reported that hospitals have run out of painkillers. As people are gravely injured and arrive at the hospital with open wounds, if hospitals are lacking proper medical equipment to stabilize them and prevent infection, many people will die preventable deaths.
▻https://www.thenation.com/article/world/gaza-public-health-ceasefire
#eau #water
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Lawless in Gaza: Why Britain and the West back Israel’s crimes
▻https://www.declassifieduk.org/lawless-in-gaza-why-britain-and-the-west-back-israels-crimesAs Western politicians line up to cheer on Israel as it starves Gaza’s civilians and plunges them into darkness to soften them up before the coming Israeli ground invasion, it is important to understand how we reached this point – and what it portends for the future.
JONATHAN COOK
13 October 2023More than a decade ago, Israel started to understand that its occupation of Gaza through siege could be to its advantage. It began transforming the tiny coastal enclave from an albatross around its neck into a valuable portfolio in the trading game of international power politics.
The first benefit for Israel, and its Western allies, is more discussed than the second.
The tiny strip of land hugging the eastern Mediterranean coast was turned into a mix of testing ground and shop window.
Israel could use Gaza to develop all sorts of new technologies and strategies associated with the homeland security industries burgeoning across the West, as officials there grew increasingly worried about domestic unrest, sometimes referred to as populism.
The siege of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, imposed by Israel in 2007 following the election of Hamas to rule the enclave, allowed for all sorts of experiments.
How could the population best be contained? What restrictions could be placed on their diet and lifestyle? How were networks of informers and collaborators to be recruited from afar? What effect did the population’s entrapment and repeated bombardment have on social and political relations?
And ultimately how were Gaza’s inhabitants to be kept subjugated and an uprising prevented?
The answers to those questions were made available to Western allies through Israel’s shopping portal. Items available included interception rocket systems, electronic sensors, surveillance systems, drones, facial recognition, automated gun towers, and much more. All tested in real-life situations in Gaza.
Israel’s standing took a severe dent from the fact that Palestinians managed to bypass this infrastructure of confinement last weekend – at least for a few days – with a rusty bulldozer, some hang-gliders and a sense of nothing-to-lose.
Which is part of the reason why Israel now needs to go back into Gaza with ground troops to show it still has the means to keep the Palestinians crushed.
Which brings us to the second purpose served by Gaza.
As Western states have grown increasingly unnerved by signs of popular unrest at home, they have started to think more carefully about how to sidestep the restrictions placed on them by international law.
The term refers to a body of laws that were formalised in the aftermath of the second world war, when both sides treated civilians on the other side of the battle lines as little more than pawns on a chessboard.
The aim of those drafting international law was to make it unconscionable for there to be a repeat of Nazi atrocities in Europe, as well as other crimes such as Britain’s fire bombing of German cities like Dresden or the United States’ dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“Gaza is about as flagrant a violation of this prohibition as can be found”
One of the fundamentals of international law – at the heart of the Geneva Conventions – is a prohibition on collective punishment: that is, retaliating against the enemy’s civilian population, making them pay the price for the acts of their leaders and armies.
Very obviously, Gaza is about as flagrant a violation of this prohibition as can be found. Even in “quiet” times, its inhabitants – one million of them children – are denied the most basic freedoms, such as the right to movement; access to proper health care because medicines and equipment cannot be brought in; access to drinkable water; and the use of electricity for much of the day because Israel keeps bombing Gaza’s power station.
Israel has never made any bones of the fact that it is punishing the people of Gaza for being ruled by Hamas, which rejects Israel’s right to have dispossessed the Palestinians of their homeland in 1948 and imprisoned them in overcrowded ghettos like Gaza.
What Israel is doing to Gaza is the very definition of collective punishment. It is a war crime: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks of every year, for 16 years.
And yet no one in the so-called international community seems to have noticed.
But the trickiest legal situation – for Israel and the West – is when Israel bombs Gaza, as it is doing now, or sends in soldiers, as it soon will do.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighted the problem when he told the people of Gaza: “Leave now”. But, as he and Western leaders know, Gaza’s inhabitants have nowhere to go, nowhere to escape the bombs. So any Israeli attack is, by definition, on the civilian population too. It is the modern equivalent of the Dresden fire bombings.
Israel has been working on strategies to overcome this difficulty since its first major bombardment of Gaza in late 2008, after the siege was introduced.
A unit in its attorney general’s office was charged with finding ways to rewrite the rules of war in Israel’s favour.
At the time, the unit was concerned that Israel would be criticised for blowing up a police graduation ceremony in Gaza, killing many young cadets. Police are civilians in international law, not soldiers, and therefore not a legitimate target. Israeli lawyers were also worried that Israel had destroyed government offices, the infrastructure of Gaza’s civilian administration.
Israel’s concerns seem quaint now – a sign of how far it has already shifted the dial on international law. For some time, anyone connected with Hamas, however tangentially, is considered a legitimate target, not just by Israel but by every Western government.
“If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it”
Western officials have joined Israel in treating Hamas as simply a terrorist organisation, ignoring that it is also a government with people doing humdrum tasks like making sure bins are collected and schools kept open.
Or as Orna Ben-Naftali, a law faculty dean, told the Haaretz newspaper back in 2009: “A situation is created in which the majority of the adult men in Gaza and the majority of the buildings can be treated as legitimate targets. The law has actually been stood on its head.”
Back at that time, David Reisner, who had previously headed the unit, explained Israel’s philosophy to Haaretz: “What we are seeing now is a revision of international law. If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it.
“The whole of international law is now based on the notion that an act that is forbidden today becomes permissible if executed by enough countries.”
Israel’s meddling to change international law goes back many decades.
Referring to Israel’s attack on Iraq’s fledgling nuclear reactor in 1981, an act of war condemned by the UN Security Council, Reisner said: “The atmosphere was that Israel had committed a crime. Today everyone says it was preventive self-defence. International law progresses through violations.”
He added that his team had travelled to the US four times in 2001 to persuade US officials of Israel’s ever-more flexible interpretation of international law towards subjugating Palestinians.
“Had it not been for those four planes [journeys to the US], I am not sure we would have been able to develop the thesis of the war against terrorism on the present scale,” he said.
Those redefinitions of the rules of war proved invaluable when the US chose to invade and occupy Afghanistan and Iraq.
In recent years, Israel has continued to “evolve” international law. It has introduced the concept of “prior warning” – sometimes giving a few minutes’ notice of a building or neighbourhood’s destruction. Vulnerable civilians still in the area, like the elderly, children and the disabled, are then recast as legitimate targets for failing to leave in time.
And it is using the current assault on Gaza to change the rules still further.
The 2009 Haaretz article includes references by law officials to Yoav Gallant, who was then the military commander in charge of Gaza. He was described as a “wild man”, a “cowboy” with no time for legal niceties.
Gallant is now defence minister and the man responsible for instituting this week a “complete siege” of Gaza: “No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel – everything is closed.” In language that blurred any distinction between Hamas and Gaza’s civilians, he described Palestinians as “human animals”.
That takes collective punishment into a whole different realm. In terms of international law, it skirts into the territory of genocide, both rhetorically and substantively.
But the dial has shifted so completely that even centrist Western politicians are cheering Israel on – often not even calling for “restraint” or “proportionality”, the weasel terms they usually use to obscure their support for law breaking.
Britain has been leading the way in helping Israel to rewrite the rulebook on international law.
“Britain has been leading the way in helping Israel to rewrite the rulebook on international law”
Listen to Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour opposition and the man almost certain to be Britain’s next prime minister. This week he supported the “complete siege” of Gaza, a crime against humanity, refashioning it as Israel’s “right to defend itself”.
Starmer has not failed to grasp the legal implications of Israel’s actions, even if he seems personally immune to the moral implications. He is trained as a human rights lawyer.
His approach even appears to be taking aback journalists not known for being sympathetic to the Palestinian case. When asked by Kay Burley of Sky News if he had any sympathy for the civilians in Gaza being treated like “human animals”, Starmer could not find a single thing to say in support.
Instead, he deflected to an outright deception: blaming Hamas for sabotaging a “peace process” that Israel both practically and declaratively buried years ago.
Confirming that the Labour party now condones war crimes by Israel, his shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, has been sticking to the same script. On BBC’s Newsnight, she evaded questions about whether cutting off power and supplies to Gaza is in line with international law.
It is no coincidence that Starmer’s position contrasts so dramatically with that of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn. The latter was driven out of office by a sustained campaign of antisemitism smears fomented by Israel’s most fervent supporters in the UK.
(...)
This is Israel’s success. The language of international law that should apply to Gaza – of rules and norms Israel must obey – has given way to, at best, the principles of humanitarianism: acts of international charity to patch up the suffering of those whose rights are being systematically trampled on, and those whose lives are being obliterated.
Western officials are more than happy with the direction of travel. Not just for Israel’s sake but for their own too. Because one day in the future, their own populations may be as much trouble to them as Palestinians in Gaza are to Israel right now.
Supporting Israel’s right to defend itself is their downpayment.
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